copyright

Copyright

The right to distribute, copy, or change an original work for a limited period of time. A state grants copyright to the creator of the work, but the creator may assign or sell the right. During the time the copyright persists, one must (with some exceptions) receive permission from the owner to publish or distribute the copyrighted material. After a certain period of time, any person may distribute the work without permission. See also: Public domain.

copyright

the legal ownership by persons or businesses of certain kinds of material, in particular original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work; sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes; the typographical arrangement or layout of a published edition; and computer programs. In the UK, the COPYRIGHT, DESIGNS AND PATENTS ACT 1988 gives legal rights to the creators of copyright material so that they can control the various ways in which their work may be exploited. Copyright protection is automatic and there is no registration or other formality The 1988 Act gives copyright owners protection against unauthorized copying of such material in most cases for a period of 50 years. If copyright is infringed, the copyright owner (or assignee or licensee) may seek an injunction through the courts preventing further abuses, with offenders liable to pay unlimited damages/ fines and prison sentences in extreme cases. See BRAND.

copyright

the ownership of the rights to a publication of a book, manual, newspaper, etc., giving legal entitlement and powers of redress against theft and unauthorized publication or copying. See INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT.

Copyright

The exclusive legal right to sell, reproduce, or publish a literary, musical, or artistic work.

By focusing on what intentions companies have to commit copyright infringement, von Lohmann said, it opens the door for lawyers to demand access to scores of engineering notes, marketing memos and other documents from firms targeted for lawsuits.

Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, who started the Congressional Entertainment Caucus earlier this year to address not only copyright infringement but also issues like runaway production and media cross-ownership, said lawmakers with common goals might be ``more effective'' if they joined existing groups.

The reexamination of these two questions is an ongoing process, and the tensions behind these two sets of interests can lead to some fractious confrontations - ask the folks at C2NET, the Berkeley service provider that was sued for contributory copyright infringement claims in 1996 by the Software Publishers Association even though there was zero evidence that the company had even come close to infringement, contributory or otherwise.

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